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64 Bit Windows 7 Locking Up

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I have Windows 7 RC installed on both my laptop as well as my newly built desktop. The laptop is running fine with no problems in the 6 or so weeks I've had it on there. The desktop, which I finally got up and running on Friday, is another story. It seemed to work fine at first, but now it's freezing/locking up continually. Sometimes after a few minutes after startup, sometimes within a minute or two of startup. The icons become unclickable, and then a second or two later the mouse stops moving and I can't do anything anymore.

Since it's probably the first thing I'll be asked, so I'll just shoot off some of the specs of what I'm running, shouldn't have any problems with them not meeting minimum specs. I can dig up exact models if necessary -Intel i7 processor -x58 motherboard -12gb Corsair RAM -512gb nVidia 9800GTX+ video card -Striker 7.1 sound card -1.5tb Seagate drive -Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse -LG Blu-Ray R/RW -27.5" Hanns-G monitor

The problems started happening right after I started to install some of my programs on to this computer, but I'm hesitant to point to any program as the cause because this was also when I hooked up some of my extra devices like a drawing pad, Firebox mic setup, Logitech webcam, and Logitech 5.1 speakers. This was also the time I updated or installed many of the drivers for my hardware, so I don't know what is causing it.

I would assume it was a hardware problem, because the same software that I installed is on my laptop as well, and the laptop has seriously not had a single problem. But then again, I'm also not going to assume it's a software problem because the hardware I have on the two setups is vastly different. Maybe just OS problem? I'm specifically having problems with the desktop gadgets stopping working before the freeze up.

Does anybody have any suggestions or thoughts? I'm also running into a problem with one of my external drives. When I plug it in, Windows tells me I need to format it to get it to work, even though I've had it work on the desktop the day before. I'm obviously not going to format it, because it has too many important things on it, but figuring out a way to get it to read again would be awesome.

Thanks advance for anyone offering help. I love Windows 7 on my laptop, and can't wait to get it up and working on my desktop. I figure there's probably a simple solution to all of this, and I'm sure the people on this board who know so much more than me will be able to point me in the right direction. Thanks!

This morning it just paused for about 2 minutes, last evening it locked up, went down and could not recover. I got it to restore back to before an update that had just gone on the system and it came up and ran.

Went to 7 RC out of need to get PC running. Vista SP2 had horrid problems. Overall, 7 RC has been MUCH better, but I have had a few of these lockups.

I dual boot and the Fedora 11 64-bit side of things runs very stable, so I would think the hardware is working.

Most of the lockups seem to be when something goes for the Internet -- might be hitting that DNS timeout. The warnings seem to be about the time of the lockups.

Note that this machine is running on a static IP with a static route to the gateway and static DNS server address of the router. The other side of the LinkSys router is all DHCP. I did have to update the firmware in the router as DNS requests were locking it up. Seems like that problem is fixed now, but this lockup remains.

Update 7/28/2009 at 6:51 P.M. -- had another freeze up -- same DNS warning came up. Freeze up happened during trying to load a web page in IE8. Also, note that this system uses an NVidia GeForce 9600 GT.

Sorry for the delay in response, I was away from internet for a few days.

Nothing I could really see on the event logs, though I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking for, either. I opened it and it had some errors but nothing really telltale or giveaway. I'm not getting BSOD when this happens, all that is happening is the screen/mouse locks up and there's nothing I can do short of restarting/shutting down to make it stop. At first I thought it might have been the Bluetooth mouse/keyboard since it had given me problems when I hooked it up to my laptop running the same x64, but I plugged in a corded mouse and keyboard and the same problem still arose.

So I did a fresh install of Windows 7 after backing up all my data and one by one started installing programs and drivers. Got through all of the drivers without a problem, but after downloading and installing just some seriously basic programs, it started doing it again. In safe mode, I don't run into any problems, so is it just a driver that went crazy after a little delay? I didn't install anything crazy - I got Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Skype, Tweetdeck, ImgBurn, Revo Uninstaller, VLC, uTorrent, FoxIt, Avidemux, and iTunes installed before the computer froze on me. I'm confused as to how "frozen" it actually is, because the DVD drive still opens, so I don't know if the whole computer is going unresponsive or if it's just shutting off the desktop or something. It's frustrating! I'm probably going to install a whole new copy of Windows 7 (I reused the same DVD for the redo install, just a new key) here tomorrow morning in the hopes that something just didn't burn right, and maybe try installing a copy of 64-bit XP or Ubuntu to see if the drivers or whatever it is give me the same troubles.

In terms of eliminating unnecessary hardware, the only thing I really had plugged in was the PreSonus Firebox, and after a little bit of Googling there doesn't look to be any real problems with that freezing anything or having anything besides audio problems. All the other hardware I mentioned wasn't plugged in when I started experiencing the problem the second time. All other drivers I don't see why they would be causing any problems...sound drivers install and sound plays, video drivers already installed, motherboard drivers already installed, wireless driver installs easily and internet works, I'm really not sure what other driver could be causing it, because I think those are the only ones I don't share with my laptop. Shoot.

Pretty much this sucks...I really wish October would roll around so I could get the final build and hopefully have all the problems solved. The dark side is calling my name right now with what's just hit the torrent scene but I'm resisting and hoping that I get something working on my RC.

Given some of the problems with Skype, I'd be a bit suspect of that. Also, any security software may include drivers, so check that. Ensure your BIOS is up-to-date, and that the system is adequately cooled. Systematic elimination of changes introduced to the system (software installed) may also turn something up.

When the system locks up, do the keyboard indicator lights toggle (caps lock, etc.)?

I'm having the exact same problem. I am running Windows 7 RC Ultimate x64 on one machine, and I often experience a spontaneous, system-wide loss of DNS service.

=== Symptoms ===

* DNS service is lost to all applications at the same moment. Network connectivity is not interrupted.

* The outage arises spontaneously: no consistent set of actions occur before it arises. And this occurs (rough estimate here) about once every three hours.

* At approximately the start of the outage period, a single Event Log entry is created, reading: "Name resolution for the name [THE NAME OF SOME SERVER I WAS TRYING TO ACCESS] timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded."

* DNS service spontaneously (i.e., without any intervention from me) resumes within approximately 10 to 60 seconds. (No event log entry is created when service resumes.)

=== Diagnostic information ===

* This is NOT caused by my ISP, router, wireless network, etc. I have two reasons for asserting this: (1) This occurs on my home network, where I am also operating three other machines (one Vista Ultimate x86 and two XP x86 SP3.) None of them have ever exhibited this behavior. Also, during the period of DNS outage on the W7 machine, the other three machines continue to have DNS access. (2) The W7 machine is a notebook, and the same issue happens when I'm connected at work on an entirely different network.

* This is NOT a network adapter or connectivity issue. I have three reasons for asserting this: (1) My 802.11n network adapter continues to report full connectivity. (2) During the DNS outage, I still have network access: file transfers that have already been initiated continue through the outage period without any slowdown or interruption. (I'm running DU Meter and can watch the transfer rate closely.) (3) The W7 machine exhibits the same behavior when I'm connected to my home network using the 802.11n adapter as when I'm connected to my work network through a regular, wired NIC.

* This is NOT a hardware issue. Before installing W7 about two months ago, I ran Vista Ultimate x64 on the same machine for a year, and this particular behavior never appeared on the Vista install. No hardware changes have occurred.

* This is NOT an application-specific issue. DNS service is lost simultaneously, and is restored simultaneously, to all applications: Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes, even attempts to update the security definitions in Kaspersky from a proxy server.

=== Conclusion ===

To me, it seems quite clear that the Windows 7 RC has a serious DNS bug that cripples internet access. I'm guessing that there is some sort of bug in the DNS client service.

I'm guessing that there is some sort of resource miscoordination - maybe a race condition involving a semaphore or lock. And although the resolution on my machine is spontaneous, others are reporting permanent loss of service until a reboot... that suggests a hung process.

Similar issue here. I am running a Dell Precision 670 with 8GIG of Dell(Kingston) memory. I have also seen the DNS issues. I was never able to solve them. It would come and go but I never got the LOCKUP that you had. I installed XP, VISTA, Fedora and FreeBSD on the same machine and had no problems. Just for FYI At the time my router(LINKSYS WRT54G) was running not LINKSYS firmware. I think it was WRT at the time. I am now running Tomato. Since I am 1 day away from downloading t he RTM I just dumped RC1 and will do a clean install with the RTM.

I'm VERY interested in hearing your experience, tim1960, as I have a Precision 470. Are you using the on-board Raid controller? If so, did you have to install an old 64 bit driver to use it or does Windows 7 recognize it?

I installed RC on 2 of the machines and both have lockup issues. The one locked up on me while importing contacts into MS Office and wouldn't respond to ctrl-alt-del and had to be hard booted. That same comp also had an external drive attached and the drive would pop in and out of the available hardware list as if it was constantly connected then disconnected every couple minutes.

On the second computer, I keep locking up while in Internet Explorer. Occasionally it simply pops up the annoying box saying it's trying to correct the problem and will continue, other times it is similar to the other computer where it completely locks up and had to be hard booted because it wouldn't respond to keyboard or mouse.

I know it's not a lack of power, however, I have RC installed on one of my home computers (dual core w/4 gig ram) and the only issue I've had with it, is when trying to return from power save mode (screensaver, etc.) it would lock up, so I had to disable ALL power save options and haven't had a problem since.

I'm getting these random lockups as well. I've tried disabling and uninstalling sound drivers, updating SATA drivers and basically anything short of pulling out the GTX280, which is what I'm going to do later today when I get home. I'll let you guys know if pulling the graphics card makes any difference or not, although it can't be all nVidia based cards that have the problem. The laptop I'm on now doesn't lock up. It has a GeForce Go 7600, but it does use a very old driver.

It wouldn't surprise me if it's nVidia that has a problem with their Win7 driver. In any case, I'll write later.

I'm hoping this doesn't jinx me, but last night I updated my nVidia driver to the newest one they had off their site (not the one that came packaged on the driver CD) and I was able to get my computer to run overnight with no lock up. I'm going to let it run while I"m at work today to see if any more problems occur, but hopefully that was all I needed to do.

I actually did just this, and I'm currently at 4 hours 45 minutes uptime (new record!). For the sake of testing, I'll leave my computer on overnight, and if by then it hasn't frozen, I'll assume I somehow fixed the problem, although narrowing down the exact service that seems to cause it on my system is going to be rather tedious, as it usually takes an hour or two before it freezes.

In any case, these are the services I started out with (randomly) turning off in msconfig. I'm not entirely aware which services actually run automatically, and which are disabled by default, but if anyone else is having this problem, I suppose you can do it the other way around, and disable a few at a time, and work your way through the list to see if any of them fixes the problem for you.

Application Experience

Application Layer Gateway Service

Application Identity

ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV)

BitLocker Drive Encryption Service

Bluetooth Support Service

Offline Files

Disk Defragmenter

Wired AutoConfig

Encrypting File System (EFS)

Windows Media Center Receiver Service

Windows Media Center Scheduler Service

Fax

Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service

Performance Logs & Alerts

Remote Registry

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator

Smart Card

Smart Card Removal Policy

Windows Backup

SNMP Trap

Print Spooler

SSDP Discovery

NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service

Superfetch

Tablet PC Input Service

Telephony

Remote Desktop Services

UPnP Device Host

Virtual Disk

Volume Shadow Copy

Problem Reports and Solutions Center

Windows Error Reporting Service

WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service

WLAN AutoConfig

WWAN AutoConfig

If my computer survives overnight, I'll be enabling them a few at a time every couple hours until I manage to find the culprit.

For me it tends to happen earlier than later. If it doesn't lock up in the first 30 mins it seems to be good for many hours. For the sake of testing I wonder if any of us share third party apps that were installed. Of the 3rd party apps I could see being a problem that I have:

Skype (uninstalled, waiting to see if it crashes again)Office 2010 Tech Preview (could certainly have something to do with it)Adobe CS4

I havent tried the 7 64-bit version, but my 7 32-bit RC installation on my Acer 5920G (Geforce 8600M) seems to produce random lockups also. the lockup is not long, not more than 2 minutes before the system responding again, but still enough ti irritate me using my system. this random lockup was never an issue with the 7 BETA and also with Vista. I used the same system drivers for the BETA and RC.

I have the same experience as you, but I have Windows 7 ultimate x64 retail, everything works fine for hours on my case if not even days, if, I leave the PC alone, like dowloading stuff from the internet, but if I start to use it to do the most simple task, like changing from browsers, of opening several word documents, or switching between apps, it freezes, I've tried installing it several times, with no luck, I tough that was my RAID driver, but I installed the latest one the last time and still same issue, these are my specs:

* Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H

* AMD Phenon 9850BE @ 2.8 GHZ with Coo'n Quiet enabled

* 2 Sapphire Radeon HD4850 in Crossfire

* 8 Gigs of ram OCZ DDR2 1066MHZ

* 2 Raid 0 drives Seagate

* 2 ODD's Lite-On

I've been searching on the internet for any reason for this with no luck, I've tried several thing on my BIOS.... until now, I did some changes to my NB configuration and so far it hasn't lock up, but also I havent tried all the things that I do normally to make it lock up, and something very important, I have the internet bug too, all of the sudden the internet light on my router goes off and I have to do many things to make it work again, and this happens only in 7, since I have Vista Ultimate x64 as well.

I work for one of the largest computer companies in the world and this week, finally, we'll receive the OEM disc for Win 7 for testing, I'll let you know if the issue happens on those computers too, regards.

P.D. I forgot to mention that both issues happend to me with this retail version of 7, neither one happend if I use the any of the RC versions.

I'm having the exact same problem. I am running Windows 7 RC Ultimate x64 on one machine, and I often experience a spontaneous, system-wide loss of DNS service.

=== Symptoms ===

* DNS service is lost to all applications at the same moment. Network connectivity is not interrupted.

* The outage arises spontaneously: no consistent set of actions occur before it arises. And this occurs (rough estimate here) about once every three hours.

* At approximately the start of the outage period, a single Event Log entry is created, reading: "Name resolution for the name [THE NAME OF SOME SERVER I WAS TRYING TO ACCESS] timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded."

* DNS service spontaneously (i.e., without any intervention from me) resumes within approximately 10 to 60 seconds. (No event log entry is created when service resumes.)

=== Diagnostic information ===

* This is NOT caused by my ISP, router, wireless network, etc. I have two reasons for asserting this: (1) This occurs on my home network, where I am also operating three other machines (one Vista Ultimate x86 and two XP x86 SP3.) None of them have ever exhibited this behavior. Also, during the period of DNS outage on the W7 machine, the other three machines continue to have DNS access. (2) The W7 machine is a notebook, and the same issue happens when I'm connected at work on an entirely different network.

* This is NOT a network adapter or connectivity issue. I have three reasons for asserting this: (1) My 802.11n network adapter continues to report full connectivity. (2) During the DNS outage, I still have network access: file transfers that have already been initiated continue through the outage period without any slowdown or interruption. (I'm running DU Meter and can watch the transfer rate closely.) (3) The W7 machine exhibits the same behavior when I'm connected to my home network using the 802.11n adapter as when I'm connected to my work network through a regular, wired NIC.

* This is NOT a hardware issue. Before installing W7 about two months ago, I ran Vista Ultimate x64 on the same machine for a year, and this particular behavior never appeared on the Vista install. No hardware changes have occurred.

* This is NOT an application-specific issue. DNS service is lost simultaneously, and is restored simultaneously, to all applications: Firefox, Thunderbird, iTunes, even attempts to update the security definitions in Kaspersky from a proxy server.

=== Conclusion ===

To me, it seems quite clear that the Windows 7 RC has a serious DNS bug that cripples internet access. I'm guessing that there is some sort of bug in the DNS client service.

I'm guessing that there is some sort of resource miscoordination - maybe a race condition involving a semaphore or lock. And although the resolution on my machine is spontaneous, others are reporting permanent loss of service until a reboot... that suggests a hung process.

Further update on my issue. I put on Nvidia's 190.62 win 7 64-bit update. It ran for a few hours and I can't even get their utility to run from the right click menu off the desktop. The rest of Windows seems better, I'll try some startups as I run this driver.

Check after a restart -- NO ERRORS!!! Last error was before a restart after installing the drivers. Nvidia ulity seems to work now as well.I've been running for 3 hours with no problems.

Note to all NVidia users -- Go Load That Driver!

9/21/2009 -- had another freeze up after booting:

Errors recorded:WMI --

Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.

I have been experiencing a lot of lock ups which then starts responding again after a minute or so but it does get annoying. I'm not sure what's going on. Everything worked well on XP x64. Any feedback would help. Thanks in advance.

So Revo might interfere with you normal software installations. In your case I would also try without the soundcard, only using onboard sound or no sound at all to know if that is the cause.

You say "mouse freeze", this means a VERY hard crash, usually driver related, the BSOD is a "controlled crash" in comparison, Windows still has enough time to write the debug output to the screen and to tell which driver was the faulty one.

This is really freaky. Just in the last two weeks or so Windows 7 has been locking up on programs randomly (I've had it installed for several months). I have version 7201 x64 (don't have my final version yet). It was running fine, then started locking up more and more. I'll try to perform an action in almost any program, the program (but not the mouse) will be unresponsive for a minute (or a few) and then come back. Try something else and it happens again. For example, I'll right click one of the icons in the bottom right corner of the screen (the name of that section of the taskbar escapes me) and nothing will come up unless I right click on it and don't move the mouse for a minute or so. Happens on pretty much everything (explorer, IE, Firefox, start menu, task manager, etc).

I do run firefox with an average of 7 windows and 100 tabs, but even when I just rebooted and open a single program I have the same problems.

Now, here's an interesting thing to note: I've been running XP in a virtual machine for web development, and even when all other programs are locking up I can go in the virtual machine and use XP just fine. In addition, if I'm playing a movie in MPC and everything else is locking up (even MPC itself) the movie's video and audio will play perfectly fine.

Well, I have been fighting this for months, My computer seems to work fine as long as I am running windows 7 x86, I have tried this with all versions of windows 7 starting with build 7000, on three different computers, same board, different processors and video cards in each, all Nvidia.

When I install the x64 version the computer works fine, then I do something as simple as surf the net or play any form of video game and it locks up.

On the same computer I can install the x86 version and have everything work perfectly.

Windows 7 randomly locks up for about 2 minutes at a time until I restart. I've been using this win7 installation on this PC for a good 2-3 months without any trouble, and haven't installed any new software or hardware recently.

The very strange thing is that the mouse still moves, and I can still use any program that doesn't seem to be making calls to the windows shell. So programs like explorer, firefox, IE, etc lock up hard and stop responding for 2 minutes at a time, but other programs continue to work normally. It happened just now while I was playing WoW in windowed mode, there was this frozen up explorer window overlaid on top of my WoW window, but WoW was still running happily behind it and working fine

Windows doesn't respond to any events from my mouse or keyboard, CTRL+ALT+DEL doesn't even knock some sense into it. The keyboard keeps running, any programs that are playing sound keep playing it, the network keeps going

I thought it must be my graphics card, since I hadn't updated the drivers for a few months (GTX 260), so I downloaded the latest drivers from nvidia and it didn't lock up for 3 days straight, but now it's locking up on me again

I went to my system settings and turned all the visual enhancements off, so it looks like a mutant windows 98 now. Maybe that'll clear things up a little, I dunno. I'm guessing the problem is in how windows interacts with nvidia's crappy drivers, probably just your classic "failure to communicate". Hopefully with graphics turned down I'll at least be able to reboot without unplugging the machine when it screws up again

My Problem is nearly identical. Windows 7 x64 on an HP 8530p laptop. When the lock-up occurs I can interact with anything still open, but cannot open anything new. I have found if I have task manager open when it occurs I can still kill processes. Using this trick I have found if I kill the svchost.exe process using 25-35 megs then I will regain control and any UI requests queued up will happen.

For me this particular svchost controls the following 19 services:

AeLookupSvc

BITS

Browser

CertPropSvc

EapHost

Gpsvc

IKEEXT

Iphlpsvc

LanmanServer

MMCSS

ProfSvc

RasMan

Schedule

SENS

SessionEnv

ShellHWDetection

Themes

Winmgmt

wuauserv

I'll be making my way through the list one-by-one hoping to find the culprit...

I have the same problem. Applications just randomly hang for 30 seconds to 2 mins. I can still use other applications that are already open but cannot open a new one. CTRL-ALT-DEL does not respond and I can't kill any process. Strangely nothing remains in the event log. Also, if I look at the resources monitor while the application is in the (not responding) state the CPU usage seem as if the system is idle. It happens mostly with Firefox, chrome, acrobat reader and windows explorer, but sometimes others. The windows login prompt hanged for 1 min once.

My system:

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bits

Version6.1.7600 Build 7600

Motherboard: Gigabyte EP35-DS3L

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Video card: ASUS EAH4850 Radeon

It worked fine for about 1 month until recently. I didn't make any hardware/driver changes. The only significant software install I did in the last 2 weeks is windows updates.

I have it too, and I find more people with it locally on all type of of configs, ati nvidia, onboard chips add-on cards etc... it appears more than anything to me to be hourse of and level of use..... The problem instensifies also as time and use goes on.

Ive tried running in a stripped down safe mode,,,, no change..... clean install start over fixes it, but 2 to 3 months its coming back...

Having the same problem here. Things had been working great for about 2-3 months, and then this started to happen. Running W7 Ultimate and had been enjoying it until recently. Specs:

AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core 2.5Ghz

8.00 GB RAM

Onboard Graphics Card

LG DVD Burner.

When peering into my logs, I notice the "Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected." error, but I'm wondering if it may be a red herring (How convenient of it to be at the very top in the error logs).

Things may blue screen into a restart about 30 minutes into it, but it can also randomly last for hours or maybe even a full day running (although rare). Funny thing seems to be that the BSOD often has different errors. The first time was PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_ERROR, but I just recently saw one with something like KERNEL_STACK_LOCKED_ON_EXIT or something similar. Many times I just get a hex dump.

I thought it was a hardware issue, so I did the standard strip and slowly build, but it seems to happen w/ any combination of RAM sticks I apply (have 4 2GBs). The other fishy thing is that it seems to happen while stuff is happening online. In fact, the very first time it happened I was 1 minute from the end of watching the latest Heroes episode on Hulu. But it happens both when Chrome, Firefox, or IE is running, and a few times without as well.

I am having basically the same problem with my windows 7. It will lock up randomly when watching videos or playing games, and remain like that for around 2-10 minutes, the mouse cursor does not lock up, and i can click on other windows that are already open(at least until they join the unresponsive party), in games, things like ventrilo are still going, so i know not everything is locked up at the time. Ive tried a lot of different things as well from updating drivers, and changing settings that other forums have suggested for people with the same/similar problem, I have also updated to the most recent Bios for my motherboard, nothing has worked so far. They will come back and start working again after a while, so i generally just read until they do.

I kept the task manager open in expectation of it happening again while watching a video, and when i did happen, nothing stood out, cpu usage was near 0% throughout, and ram usage was no higher than normal

What was running last time i had the problem(out of these programs the only 1 that is guaranteed to be running when it happens, whether its in a game or watching a video is AVG): VLC Windows Live Messenger Mozilla Firefox 3.5.5 AVG Free 9.0 Steam

The seagate manager is for my external hd, its generally not running, but it was installed just recently, long after the problems started. I installed the new nvidia drivers yesterday, same with the newest bios update

Glad I found this forum thread after doing a google search. This same issue started about a week ago. Yesterday it stopped after I updated Java and "unchecked" indexing in windows features. I know it sounds dumb and what does that have to do with lock ups. I don't know but when I switched back today it started freezing up again every so often. I'm running a GeForce 8800 GTS with driver 195.62 on a Asus Striker Extreme with the latest BIOS update. There is a 195.81 BETA driver out and it addresses "stuttering issues with online Adopbe flash. I'm going to install and see if it stops the freeze ups which could be the "stuttering" issue talked about here:

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles. I went through the exact same thing way back when I installed Vista and tried to use a high end nVidia FX 3400 card. No end to the faults, crashes, and troubles, right until I went to the store and picked up an ATI Radeon 4670. No crashes since.

I get exactly the same problem on win7 64bit and yet I'm using a new ATI 5xxx card on an AM3 board so no Nvidia drivers/hardware. I would be interested to know if any of you guys are using utorrent and if so does uninstalling it fix your problem.

My system has been rock solid even with Win7 RC1. The retail version worked fine up until about 6 weeks ago when it started freezing on the desktop or when Firefox was opened. I actually thought it was an ATI issue as it seemed to coincide with the new graphics card install (previous card was 8800GTX). nothing on the PC has changed other than the ATI drivers being installed and these were a clean install so no old driver files hanging about. Obviously Nvidia has highlighted a fault of some sort but it looks like the new ATI stuff is also suffering from a similar problem.

I have reinstalled ATI Catalyst 9.12 with the hotfix (card is an XFX 5770) 7 Is up to date as is the Bios. Good point on board drivers thats got to be worth a try although after I installed the new utorrent client and disabled disk read and write caching (in utorrent) the system reboot problem seems to have stopped. The freezing issue hasn't repeated for about 48hours although this is not unusual . I personally think there is more than one issue that is effecting stability but it may ball down to one element of 7 that is being affected by various pieces of 3rd party code. Reading through the above thread there is a varied spread of hardware/applications and Computer competency and yet most of us are suffering the same problems. Hopefully by identifying the various pieces of Hardware and software that we have swapped/updated we can find a common aspect.

Problem solved I think. On rechecking Gigabyte's site they have slipped a bios update out this week I have flashed the bios and at the same time noticed 2 further updates not listed on Gigabytes site for the Lan & audio chip. All seems well with driver/bios combo pity I had to suffer it till now. I think utorrent may have highlighted the Lan driver issue. Thanks for steering me into checking again Vegan otherwise I would have been chasing my own tail as I thought they were bang up to date.

This is more then a BIOS update from Gigabytes for your system. Everyone doesn't have the same MB and this problem is a Windows 7 64 issue. This will have to be a MS critical update to resolve this problem. Some of the theories on software here is just outlandish. uTorrent ? related to a Lan driver? Are you kidding me. This certainly wouldn't cause these lock ups. Before you start throwing votes to VF get back to us tomorrow SPID360 and let us know when your freeze ups started back up. Windows 7 (86) / (64)
Intel Core 2 Q6600
WD 320GB/HD/Seagate 160GB/HD
Asus Extreme Striker
4GB-OCZ-DDR2
GeForce 8800 640 GTS

Hello there, I'm having freeze issues myself and I believe it's my graphics card since I have tested just about everything else. I have an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT. Is it one of the cards in the range you specified that seems to be affected by these freezes?

Another thing, my BIOS is like 4 versions behind (even though this is a new motherboard - new to me anyways). The manufacturer's website has an update for the BIOS but I don't know what program to use to burn the .ISO file to disk. After it is burned to a disk, do I then just restart the computer and Boot from Disk?

I don't want to temp fate but my system has been perfect since Saturday and I have pretty much used it solid. I have to agree cropcircles that it is a win7 issue and that Microsoft should resolve but the bottom line is I'm freeze / crash free and back to the reliability I had when 7 beta was installed. The utorrent / Lan driver issue is from a utorrent forum and this for sure did reduce the freezes, Utorrent was not on the system during the beta. Another consideration again take it or leave it but I uninstalled super antispyware and Avira antivirus and installed windows security essentials (As its had some good reviews). So far so good but we shall see Details of system below if it helps anyone.

Installed new Nvidia nForce 689i SLI chipset 15.51 WHQL. Uninstalled the Nvidia 195.81 beta driver and reinstalled 195.62. I had also uninstalled Opera browser 10.10 because of a problem I was having with left arrow toolbar not returning me back to google home page. "weird" Installed 10.50 pre-alpha (for now - testing) and it is screaming fast. Drum role please... No more locking up. I've been testing for a couple hours. Rebooted several times and have run IE, Firefox, and Opera PA, along with some heavy RAM programs Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 and google earth. Nothing. Fast, fast, fast. No hesitations or hour glass hangs. I had been getting lock ups on all three browsers and various software at different times. We'll see how this goes. SPID360 I'm not going to second guess your software trial and error but take a look at your hardware and specifically your chipset. I would also check your MB website for a BIOS update. Its just not a software issue guys. My misunderstanding was it was the Nvidia display driver. My suggestion is to update your chipset then reinstall your display driver afterwards. Thanks VF and SPID360 for the cross checking information and insights. Windows 7 (86) / (64)
Intel Core 2 Q6600
WD 320GB/HD/Seagate 160GB/HD
Asus Extreme Striker
4GB-OCZ-DDR2
GeForce 8800 640 GTS

Ok update. System has been stable up until today when I had a random system reboot & lock up. Although my rig is stock and not OC'd in any way the Bios ram timings are set to auto. I have used Prim95 to stress the system and could not invoke another failure so perhaps it was an anomaly either way I have switched the Bios ram setting to manual and set the Speed and Cas Lat according to Crucial's data using the lower 1066MHz rather than 1333MHz (Crucial say it runs on either). and 9-9-9-24 settings, Bios default is 7-7-7-20 in Auto.

Whats the latest VF on your Video card. Its been almost 2 weeks and I'm still having NO problems on my 7 (64) after installing latest nForce chipset driver and reinstalling display driver. Your video card cracked?

All clear here sweet as a nut no lock ups or reboots I'm loving it. When everything is stable I think this is a great OS. I'm now onto the fact my win 7 media center PC loses its sound when it has been idle for 20 mins (sound via HDMI to Panasonic plasma panel) had this on vista 64 and an early ati driver fixed it wish I could remember what number it was. lol

My desktop computer hangs up to once per day. It was already happenning with Vista 64 bit. I have upgraded to Windows 7 (64 bit) doing a clean install and still have the problem.

In my case, I suspect that it might be related to a problem with the PreSonus Firebox as I don't think it ever happen before I had it. Presently, I am trying the computer with the audio interface disconnected (and using onboard audio) since a few days and it never lock since then but I will have to test it a few more day to be sure as in my case the lock was infrequent.

I am having the exact same issue and I've gone through pretty much the same steps. To whit:

This is not a new computer, but it is a powerhouse (AMD Phenom 9950 Quad 2.60Ghz, K9N2 Diamond MSI, 8Gb memory, 4Tb disk space, Dual NVidia 8600 SLI, four monitors) which I recently reinstalled to Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (I can dual boot to the old XP). It had been relatively stable (as stable as XP ever was ;-) before the upgrade.

I am getting random freezing problems just like you.

I have run the memory though days of testing with Memtest 86+ and MemScope with not a single error.

I have monitored the temperature and voltages on both the motherboard and video cards.

I have watched the windows resources to see if they run out.

I have monitored the CPU usage to see if there are any patterns.

I have removed part of the memory and swapped out the banks to see if that would make a difference.

I have played with a few of the overclocking settings (to underclock a bit) (I am running with no overclocking enabled now).

I've tried disabling all non-essential services and letting the computer run idle until it locks up.

I have disconnected all devices except for monitor, keyboard, SATA hard drives, and one ATA DVD drive (no RAID, no ATA drives, no USB except for keyboard).

I have tried running just one monitor under SLI (it was nice and fast, but eventually locked up just as before).

None of these things seems to have affected the problem in any obvious way. The lock up is completely random. I have had it lock up as quickly as 40 minutes and I've had it run as long as 8 hours. Here are some patterns that I have noticed:

Just before it locks up I often have failures in the USB sub-system. For example, it will stop accepting new devices added to a hub (I have a USB switch and it will not let me switch devices in just before it locks up).

When the computer is locked at least once I have noticed an animated GIF in a program was still animating. That was weird.

If audio is playing when the computer locks up the audio often continues to play for a minute or two but gets slower and slower until finally it just buzzes and then stops altogether. Nothing else is responsive (keyboard lights, mouse, etc.) during this time. The first time this happened it was very freaky.

Sometimes after the computer is clearly locked the hard drive light will blink (I've seen it blink 4 or 5 times, but not in any pattern, just like random drive access).

More than a few times when I reboot the computer after a freeze part of the computer is not working properly (once it was the network, once USB devices would not connect, once a hard drive would not mount). I'm not really sure what this means, or if it means anything. Turning the computer fully off and back on has always restored the computer.

A couple of times I have had a *pause* and then after a second the screen goes to black, comes back, and a dialog pops saying something like, "The video drive stopped responding and was restarted." For that second the symptoms were very much like the solid lock of a true failure. Who knows if they are related.

The computer boot process is slower than it was when I first installed Windows 7.

My problem is similar and has been going on since the summer too. First using Bootcamp on a brand new MacBook Pro, with Vista 32, then Win7 32 RC, I would get these random freezes. I chalked it up to running it on a Mac and the driver compatiblity issues with Bootcamp, particularly the multi gesture trackpad.

So a couple weeks ago, I get a new Dell Studio with i7 chip, 4GB ram, ATI 4570 running Win7 Pro 64 bit. It took one day, but then the lockups began. Seems like they normally occur when web browsing (usually use Firefox), I am left with the arrow cursor stuck and zero functionality of keyboard or trackpad. Sometimes the spinning hourglass thing is visible next to the arrow, in static mode.

MY own index is OUTRAGED. How can MSFT avoid even acknowledging a problem. Dell of course blames them and wont help. Thousands of posts on message boards like these all talk about this issue with no solution. Of course what's frustrating is the randomness and inability to replicate, as well as no records on the error log.

Apple business consultants will tell you to use XP whether using windows natively via Bootcamp or via emulators such as Parallels. Guess what, MSFT, it is now 2010 and you won't even support XP next year.

Millions of users depend on a rock-stable OS to do their jobs. In my case the stock market will not wait for while I re-boot.

I repeat: It is SO pathetic what is happening here. Wait till a high profile corporation migrates to 7 and these issues pop up. I can just read the stories now..Walt Mossberg are you listening?

This Forum seems to be hosted by MSFT so I hope that I am no censored before people can read this, but I'm mad as ____ and can't take it anymore!

I am also waiting for months for the cashback from BING, but that's another Forum.

Same thing for me as well... random lock ups. I can be playing a game for days... no issues, then suddenly, it locks up for about 40 seconds.. just enough to get me disconnected from the game. Even surfing the web, it will do the same thing.

Got in contact with a MS Tech, we ran thru a gambit of tests and changing this and that to fix the issue. It will work fine for about a day.. then right back to where I started with the random freeze.

I used to laugh at the commercials with the Apple and the MS guy... now im starting to think they have a point. MS... fix this garbage of an OS!!!!

As Vegan and myself have found along with a few others, Drivers seem to be a main issue. But I have found that along with this memory settings in the bios also contribute. A bios running standard settings with automatic memory timings and voltages can and do default out of spec for the fitted memory. Lock the settings down into manual and physically set the correct timings and voltages. I have done this and after much messing around with new ATI drivers have been freeze free for over a month. I did however get these freezes prior to this from a clean install 2nd time around (After fitting a new HDD). I personally think its some conflict with memory addressing, blame Microsoft, Ati whoever It needs sorting for sure as not everyone has the knowledge or time to go on a witch hunt.

I too have been getting the dreaded kernel power error and also a atikmdag error. I have spoken to Microsoft and after a few days of getting no-wear the last thing that they told me to do was to disable the RAC task in scheduled tasks. I did this and also uninstalled all my programs and uninstalled my ATI drivers and catalyst controller. Then I installed the ATI catalyst control and drivers from an earlier date (9-7_vista64_win7_64_dd_ccc_wdm_enu). I no longer get the atikmdag error and yet to get the random reboot associated with the kernel power error, it has now been 5 days trouble free (cross my fingers). I know how annoying this problem is and i believe that it is not a hardware problem like some people may think. I do believe that it is a Microsoft problem that may be resolved in later patches,SP. I think that Microsoft has done something in the RTM that some motherboards are not agreeing with therefor causing this kernel power error. I hope this helps some of you.

I am just not sure what I can do to fix this. I can't roll back any drivers, as I have nothing to roll back to.

I expected this to work bug-free out of the box.

Again, this is not a mild annoyance, but a potentially business destroying shutdown for me. Given the wide variety of hardware, drivers, bios, etc that this freeze occurs on, it must be the OS problem. After Vista, I know MSFT cannot admit yet another failure, but hoping it goes away is foolhardy. The issue occurred during RC, and has been well documented.

Look for new chipset drivers, the problem is indicative. Video drivers also have been problematic. Try anothere video ard see if that helps.
Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe

I ran windows 7RC 64bit with no problems on this machine for months but using an nvidia 8800GTS graphics card. Low and behold patch Tuesday comes around the same day I fit an new ATI 5770 card and install its drivers and I have the problem (well 2 days later). I uninstalled/updated drivers and software bit by bit to try and pinpoint the problem and to be honest got different results every time. When utorrent was removed the system became more stable but still locked up just less. When the Lan driver was updated it got better still and when I swapped Avira and super antispyware for microsoft security essentials system became perfect. at this point I formatted reinstalled using ALL the latest drivers and BIOS file installed all my software and then installed MS security essentials. I have since only had the system appear to freeze once and just as I started to F & B noticed the mouse had gone flat. 1 Month of 24 hour use and... Touch wood perfect. Like so many have said we all run different Hardware but I really do think this is a memory conflict that's why some people are getting it and not others. My other win 7 64bit machine's have never had this problem! This thread started off with the guys looking at Nvidia hardware / drivers being the common denominator but my system clearly proved it was not Nvidia specific. I agree Robster yes it should work out the box and it is unacceptable but as Vegan said it should be sorted by Dell. I dearly hope MS patch this issue in there OS or at least advise there partners on what is going wrong. But to put it into perspective out of the 5 machine in my house only one had this problem and the rest were fine and happy running Win7 64bit. specs vary and so does the software on them.

I run 2 versions of win 7 Pro 64bit, & 3 versions of win 7 64bit home premium all retail versions. The three home premium editions were purchased with the Microsoft Beta tester Vouchers. (Previously advertised as the e version prior to release)

VF new updates out today from Microsoft might resolve this issue: If these updates don't work then let it rot! Good luck.

Update for Windows 7 (KB977074)

Issues that this update fixesThis update improves the stability and the reliability of Windows 7 and of Windows Server 2008 R2 in various scenarios. This update resolves the following issues: Keyboard function keys or keyboard shortcuts, such as mute or calculator, may not work correctly.

The notification icon for an application may be moved or lost when the executable application is updated.

On a computer that is running Windows 7, you configure the Screen Saver Settings to display the logon screen on resume. Additionally, you configure the computer to go to sleep. However, the computer may not go to sleep after the screen saver starts. Instead, a black screen is displayed. This problem causes the operating system to stop responding. You must restart the computer by holding down the power button.

Update for Windows 7 (KB976972) Overview

You may encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7-based or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM.Consider the following scenario:You have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.The computer has an NVIDIA USB Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) chipset.The computer has at least 4GB of RAM.You try to copy data from the computer to an external USB storage device.You have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.The computer has an NVIDIA USB Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) chipset. The computer has at least 4GB of RAM.You try to copy data from the computer to an external USB storage device. In this scenario, either of the following issues occurs:The computer stops responding. The copy operation stops. The computer stops responding. The copy operation stops.

NotesThis issue may also occur when you are using USB devices other than storage devices.

This issue may also occur if you perform other input/output (I/O) operations on the USB storage device. In this situation, the I/O operations fail.

I'm enjoying the same irregular freezing as the rest of you poor buggers.

This started about a week ago when I made the crashing error of upgrading from Vista 64 to System 7(64) with the free upgrade disc. My Asus CG5270 with Nvidia GT220 was humming along nicely prior to the upgrade.

After each crash that requires a hard reboot I find the following message in Admin:

"Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected"

I have tried the script posted in the kb article (kb950375) with no change.

I have disabled AVG anti-virus with no improvement.

I have tried rolling back graphics drivers and get stability from the 180 series drivers (at the penalty of losing full screen display) but nothing but crashes from 190 series.

From the above I conclude that something in system 7 is conflicting with the Nvidia 190 series drivers, but since I'm a simple PBI I have no idea what.

Any help would be much appreciated since my preferred route....Going back to my stable Vista 64 configuration is not possible following my stupid flirtation with the System 7 upgrade. :-(

I purchased a Lenovo W500 with 8GB RAM and Win7 x64 Ultimate. Usually two minutes after logging in, it freezes until I power reset it. It started about a month after I got it. I've gone through and removed all programs, reinstalled them, removed drivers and reinstalled newer drivers, gone through and delayed services. Nothing works. If I manage to get it to start and keep working then it is rock solid. In fact I now leave my laptop at work running all week. Monday mornings I write off the first hour in trying to get the laptop started.

My computer was an HP with 7 GB and a NVIDIA video card. After two weeks of frustration I took the computer to a Tech. It is very disappointing to have so many problems after I was told it was OK to update. My laptop has recently died with similar problems

I came across this forum through google. My computer is 3 days old. i5750, 8GBram, ATI 5770 gfx, Windows 7 64 BIT

While I came here for help with my own issue, I noticed some people in this forum identify with my problem, and others seem to have slightly different issues.

I had recently installed a bunch of programs which seemed fine, but the following day after a few minutes the computer would completely lock up, programs would freeze and the mouse would freeze and I had to keep hitting the reset button on my tower.

I originally thought this was a corrupted windows system file but after much experimentation my system locking up was actually being caused by Windows Live Messenger. I noticed when I disabled WLM on startup, the locking up issues no longer arose.

I've been following this and other related threads for some time as I have also been having random lockups.

Mine seemed to start after I updated my nVidia driver to 196.21, however people running ATI GPU's have had the same problem.

I remember after I first installed Windows 7 64bit Pro on a new Harddrive I occasionally got a message saying thatWindows could not perform the requested action because of insufficient memory.

I thought this was a bit odd as I'm running 2 x 2GB (Matched pair) of Corsair XMS2 Ram @1066MHz

I went into my BIOS and found that it was only showing my RAM speed as 800MHz. I'd left the Memory Clock Mode at 'Auto' and it was only setting the Memclock Value to 400MHz. I switched the mode to Manual and changed the value to 533MHz and all seemed fine.

About 1 month ago I did the nVidia driver update and my problems started, with Kernel 41 power issues (what the ____ is that).

I've uninstalled the dodgy driver, deleted it from my computer, set my Power Plan to 'Performance', set 'Sleep' to 'Never' and set my RAM timings manually to the manufacturers specs.

This is my 4th day without a lock-up. Yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaa !!!!!

I'm not a Tech and am self-trained in building my own computers. I don't play games and build my machines mainly for photo processing and general computing.I tend to source my components from what was 'Hot' about 18 months ago. I've set my previous Vista machine up as a PVR with no lock-up problems.

I do like to get my set-up right and if I have problems I spend time surfing the various Forums seeking a 'Fix'.

My gut feeling about this lock-up issue is that it has something to do with how Windows 7 handles memory usage.

Your power supply is close to maxed out for the gear you list, a stronger model would provide some margin as they do tend to decline with age. I bought a new 680W model this year and its more efficient than the old one so it will pay for itself this year.

My new PSU runs so cool as the load is very light as my CPU is 65W, my video card is 15W etc. I like low power products as they can do the work without wasting electricity which means I have $, a fashionable pursuit these days.

I'll admit right off the bat that I have not read every word of this entire thread, but I had similar problems with a Win7 HE on an ECS MB and an AMD 620 quad CPU.

IF I initiated any of the onboard RAID function RAID 0 or RAID 1 I would experiance the same issues that others are reporting. I know not everyone here listed RAID in this list of options, but a few of you did.

RAID is left on (Bios) but never configured it for either 0 or 1 and installed the 2 500GB Seagate drives independently and ALL of my slow downs and lock ups went away.

Running RAID 0 .. problems as described in the threadRunning RAID 1 .. problems as described in the thread

I split the mirror in my RAID 1 config and problem solved. Thats when I went on to test RAID 0.

Probably nothing here that hasnt been tried, but in my case... it solved the issues.

I thought the problem of freezing after startup for Win7 might have been isolated to 64bit versions. However another laptop (brand new Lenovo) has started with the exact same problem. It is a 32bit version.

I've disabled WLM from starting up, that's not the problem.

The platform is rock solid for both of us, except for a few minutes after login.

I was having intermittent system lock-ups after installing Windows 7 Enterprise x86, my system would completely lock-up shortly after logging in, during Windows Update or just browsing through folders.

I found that disabling APIC in the BIOS sorted the problem, I have yet to have any lock-ups since doing so...

I have the same problem of random lock-ups/freezing after a new build last week, thought it was firefox at first, one main issue I get is Windows not shutting down correctly due to it freezing, I have had a few errors for Video display too.

I have now tried setting power options to High performance so will need to see if this helps.

Idle never crashes only seems to with browsers and Media player so far, however it might be random when it decides to freeze/lock-up

Is Microsoft trying to fix this issue as it seems to be very common across forums?

Have these problems been addressed? I am not sure if I am having the same problem. But the error I have at least one of the same errors. I tried reading the thread. However, I do not understand what the discussion/fixes are.

====================

Name resolution for the name dns.msftncsi.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Name resolution for the name teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Name resolution for the name i4.ytimg.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Name resolution for the name teredo.ipv6.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

============================================

I have no idea what the heck any of these sites/things are. I do know it has happened over 100 times since 3.29.2010. This was about the time my computer started crashing and having numerous issues. Hopefully someone can tell me what this is. Where it comes from. What I need to do to make sure it does not happen again and a fix.

I'm enjoying the same irregular freezing as the rest of you poor buggers.

This started about a week ago when I made the crashing error of upgrading from Vista 64 to System 7(64) with the free upgrade disc. My Asus CG5270 with Nvidia GT220 was humming along nicely prior to the upgrade.

After each crash that requires a hard reboot I find the following message in Admin:

"Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected"

I have tried the script posted in the kb article (kb950375) with no change.

I have disabled AVG anti-virus with no improvement.

I have tried rolling back graphics drivers and get stability from the 180 series drivers (at the penalty of losing full screen display) but nothing but crashes from 190 series.

From the above I conclude that something in system 7 is conflicting with the Nvidia 190 series drivers, but since I'm a simple PBI I have no idea what.

Any help would be much appreciated since my preferred route....Going back to my stable Vista 64 configuration is not possible following my stupid flirtation with the System 7 upgrade. :-(

KACHING!!!

Today I loaded the new offering from Nvidia for my GT220 graphics card (197.45)http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_197.45_whql.html and my Asus CG5270 has run for 12 hours without crashing. Games that previously gave me issues are now running smoothly and in some cases at a higher frame rate. "Silent Hunter 5", "IL2" and" Mount and Blade Warband" all show marked improvements in graphics quality (surprise, surprise) in some cases breathtakingly so. I know it's early to proclaim my issue solved, but confidence is high.

MS must know the issues about the 64bit version as so many people have the same problem and with different spec machines so that would suggest its the OS.

You might think so, except that a lot of systems DON'T have the problem, so that would suggest that some people are loading junk software off the internet and installing it or are using second rate computer hardware that's faulting or have changed configuration in ways that have caused it...

The plain and simple fact is that a good quality computer being run properly by a person who knows what they're doing simply doesn't lock up.

I agree - class action lawsuit.

LOL! Good luck with that. I'd love to be there when you're laughed out of the lawyer's office.

Look, for every report you see here of a problem, there are hundreds of people without that problem. People WITH the problem certainly DO find it devastating, and desperately want to be among a group ("misery loves company") so there's a better chance of their probem being corrected. People WITHOUT the problem just don't normally go online with "OMG! What am I gonna do? My computer still works."

You can be sure Microsoft is looking into this, given that people are reporting such problems, and Windows is supposed to be robust, but let's try not to blow it this out of proportion and get silly, okay?

MS must know the issues about the 64bit version as so many people have the same problem and with different spec machines so that would suggest its the OS.

You might think so, except that a lot of systems DON'T have the problem, so that would suggest that some people are loading junk software off the internet and installing it or are using second rate computer hardware that's faulting or have changed configuration in ways that have caused it...

The plain and simple fact is that a good quality computer being run properly by a person who knows what they're doing simply doesn't lock up.

I agree - class action lawsuit.

LOL! Good luck with that. I'd love to be there when you're laughed out of the lawyer's office.

Look, for every report you see here of a problem, there are hundreds of people without that problem. People WITH the problem certainly DO find it devastating, and desperately want to be among a group ("misery loves company") so there's a better chance of their probem being corrected. People WITHOUT the problem just don't normally go online with "OMG! What am I gonna do? My computer still works."

You can be sure Microsoft is looking into this, given that people are reporting such problems, and Windows is supposed to be robust, but let's try not to blow it this out of proportion and get silly, okay?

-Noel

Class action law suits which impacted a much smaller 'class', had less meaningful social and economic impact over claims as 'frivioulous' as .10 cents overbilling, Verizon comes to mind, I believe - have been ordered to pay judgements worth tens of millions. Heck consider the recent DSL issues despite signed customer contracts I am still getting my $30. This is Microsoft we are discussing here. If someone would step up for the class win or loose this would be one to remember. According to the fairness 2005 act(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Action_Fairness_Act_of_2005) this fits the bill and would most likely wind up in Federal courts. Just considering class size alone if an individual took the time to research this and was able to effectively articulate their concerns. . . The attorney who would not take a serious look is the fool. I am on the fence about this. But, if someone gets rich based upon judgements(consider Tabacco lawsuits) it is the attorney not the class. But, they do the work and in my mind a suit of this nature would be more complex than just money.

I think you would agree that the vast majority of non-savvy users go directly to their OEM when it comes time for support or the 'point of purchase'. I completely understand your point there are possibly hundreds of millions of customers who are 'mostly' happy. How about the other 1, 10 or 60 million? More importantly, there is no reason to assume because a person like myself accidently found this site after being a computer user for years that there are not thousands who are struggling with issues but not here yet. There are literally thousands of tech support sites which deal directly with current MS issues. . . It has nothing to do with wanting company(as you say misery does) nor is it directly related to this one specific issue. I think it is more that the same error codes/problems have been occuring for years - decades in some cases?

As the world's, not the countries, North America's rather the worlds leading provider of 'software' there seems to be something more they(MS) ought to do.

*Both of us are working from personal speculation/guesses. When we say people only go online, here for support or X amount has problems and X does not.

You would have to prove that Windows is not worth the few hundred dollars that you paid for it (frankly, it's an amazing bargain for what you get), and fit for the purpose of being a PC operating system. Possibly more importantly, you would also have to prove that you and your fellow class members didn't screw it up. That is practically impossible, because that's what people do. And let's not forget that there's another OS out there for those who really want it dumbed-down and more idiot proof. You had a choice, and you chose Windows.

I imagine each of you would have to justify why it is you bought the cheap computer when clearly there were more expensive models available that had things like error correcting memory and disk drives with longer MTBFs. Perfection comes at a price.

There is also precedent. It could be shown that Windows 7 delivers quite possibly the best experience yet, and is more reliable under many conditions than its predecessors, so how are you going to show that Microsoft should pay where they didn't before?

Oh, and I can't think of a better funded team of lawyers than those you would be facing. Best of luck on that.

-Noel

P.S., I agree that I am only guessing about the number of people who ask for help vs. the number that don't have a problem. But I have experience with the Internet that goes back to when the Internet was invented (by Al Gore, I hear), I once worked in big companies on hyper-complex software products, and now I sell and support my own products. Trust me when I say that you VERY rarely hear from happy customers.

I hope you are not still having problems with your system after all this time but you might want to make sure your
corsair memory has the proper voltage setting in your X58 Mainboard bios. If the memory voltage is not set right your system will become unstable. Dont presume your mainboard will detect the right voltage. Take
care.

hello my system just started this same thing runing the same version of 7 i noticed it 1-2 days after instaling avg try tht seem lik all was good before tht so if u use avg i recomend toataly uninstaling it and then see if tht helps

yess well if u use avg antivirus thts wut was causeing mine i uninstalled it and have had no trouble so far.. i would watch out for any free antivirus programs i think there all trash so if u still have the lock up problem then try uninstalling
the free antivirus good luck

Sata cables can be flimsy, and not work proply which would result in you not beable to access your memory, so your computer slows down.

Also you said you built the computer your self, did you put cathodes in? if you did check the cableing, and check to see if your system runs better with out them, also are 1 of them dimmer than the rest or only half lighting up, because that would suggest
a bad wire and a bad wire on cathodes will make your system freeze up alot evan tho its only 12v

Sata cables can be flimsy, and not work proply which would result in you not beable to access your memory, so your computer slows down.

Also you said you built the computer your self, did you put cathodes in? if you did check the cableing, and check to see if your system runs better with out them, also are 1 of them dimmer than the rest or only half lighting up, because that would suggest
a bad wire and a bad wire on cathodes will make your system freeze up alot evan tho its only 12v

i have been having this problem as well it stared with charshing then not detecting my hard drive but now within 2 minuets it just crashes and then crashes again and sometimes while booting no new hardware has gone in and has
been getting rather hot recently does anyone have any solutions

If its a seagate hard drive it could be defective. They manufactured some hard drives that are defective and they have not advertised much about it. Buy a new drive, if it solves the problem then great, if not return the new drive and start over. Also check
the timing and voltage settings for your memory. If this is not set right it can cause instability and crashing. Set timing and voltage to what the memory manufacturer states not the default of your bios.

In my case, I suspect that it might be related to a problem with the PreSonus Firebox as I don't think it ever happen before I had it. Presently, I am trying the computer with the audio interface disconnected (and using onboard audio) since a few
days and it never lock since then but I will have to test it a few more day to be sure as in my case the lock was infrequent.

When it locks, the mouse, screen and keyboard stop workings.

After more than 6 month that I used that computer at work without the PreSonus FireBox, it has never hang again. But I am unsure if the problem was with the computer (for ex. Bios) or the audio interface (64 bit driver). The PreSonus works fine in my Vista
32 bits laptop.

You need to check your power supply and how many watts it can put out. You are carrying a lot of weight and hence needs lots of power to run your box. With large power consumption comes lots of heat. When the first 486 66MHz came out, one
reviewer referred to it as "A space heater with a keyboard". I always loved that line. An I7 is more than equally capable. Check you cooling fans. Notice I wrote FANS, pural. You need to make sure you are moving a lot of air through
your box. A 350 watt power supply and one case fan is not going to do the job. Check the fan on the CPU, video board, and the two or preferably three case fans to make sure that they are all running. Hi heat will shorten your system's life
span probably taking out the memory first.

I'm having the same problem only I can pinpoint it. I downloaded the new version of IE8 (or at least I think I did) and that's when my problems started. I'm wondering now if it's not that at all. I've had my computer since March and it only recently started
giving me fits. Can't afford the time to play with it as I used it constantly for school and work full time. Argh! Any help will be appreciated as I'm not a tech guru.

@weonit, I think you installed IE9 beta, not IE8? I did it as well, my computer crashed each day. I uninstalled it, now I'm clean and stable. The problem occurred on Win 7 64bit Ultimate with IE9 64bit beta.

I am just not sure what I can do to fix this. I can't roll back any drivers, as I have nothing to roll back to.

I expected this to work bug-free out of the box.

Again, this is not a mild annoyance, but a potentially business destroying shutdown for me. Given the wide variety of hardware, drivers, bios, etc that this freeze occurs on, it must be the OS problem. After Vista, I know MSFT cannot admit yet another
failure, but hoping it goes away is foolhardy. The issue occurred during RC, and has been well documented.

XP, here i come again. how sad.

Hi me also - new Dell inspriron not responding all the hanging problems and now useless with windows 7 64 bit only have Skype, office 2003 and Kapersky it is going back for repair having run all the hardware tests advised by Dell over telephone - back to old
inspiron running XP - just glad I just managed a back up before it gave up the ghost - we cannot all be having hardware - driver - programme problems? It is a windows problem please microsoft take notice!

I have had multiple issues with lockups. One may have been finally fixed (a user response in another thread; the Microsoft person just gave a "canned" response which showed that they never read the original question that the original poster made),
but I still have this one:

Name resolution for the name dns.msftncsi.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.

Event 1014, DNS Clent Events

This is an hp dv7-3063cl; I don't have Skype on it; I do have Office 2003 but had the same problem long before I installed O2k3. From what everyone else has posted, it is obviously not a hardware issue, an issue with other installed software, a network
issue, etc., but a problem with Windows 7 (mine is 64-bit).

For me, this only occurs when I'm not actually using the laptop (it may be running something, but I'm not actively "doing stuff"), and when I then start to do something (like move the mouse or click an icon or use some open window), it will refuse to activate
whatever I click, I get the "waiting" cursor, and eventually the cursor freezes as well. Alt-Ctrl-Del does not fix it; it just eventually "comes back on its own" (sometimes after a few minutes; if it takes too long, I reboot).

I'm having an issue on Win 7 Ultimate that appears to be closely related to what you described. Were you ever able to establish root cause or resolution or did you just chaulk it up to windows? I appreciate any info you can provide. I've arrived at about
the same conclusions as you. I'm a step away from scrapping it for Linux and letting my wife buy a new laptop ...

I'm enjoying the same irregular freezing as the rest of you poor buggers.

This started about a week ago when I made the crashing error of upgrading from Vista 64 to System 7(64) with the free upgrade disc. My Asus CG5270 with Nvidia GT220 was humming along nicely prior to the upgrade.

After each crash that requires a hard reboot I find the following message in Admin:

"Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events
cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected"

I have tried the script posted in the kb article (kb950375) with no change.

I have disabled AVG anti-virus with no improvement.

I have tried rolling back graphics drivers and get stability from the 180 series drivers (at the penalty of losing full screen display) but nothing but crashes from 190 series.

From the above I conclude that something in system 7 is conflicting with the Nvidia 190 series drivers, but since I'm a simple PBI I have no idea what.

Any help would be much appreciated since my preferred route....Going back to my stable Vista 64 configuration is not possible following my stupid flirtation with the System 7 upgrade. :-(

Short term help until you find the cause of your problem

To save a restart when you freeze up Use Contol -Alt- Del bring up task manager which releases up your computer from its lock-up state, leave it open put at the bottom of your screen and carry on working try it I found it handy many times saves the restart!!

First thing I know about WINDOWS 7 is that you have to right-click most of your installed desktop icons (desktop program icons) and check the compatibility box to run programs like in XP. Im not sure about hardware. And skype gave me trouble when I installed
it on both XP and 7.

I'm in a 3 month old HP P6670T w/ an Intel i5, 64-bit W7 and am experiencing the same freezes and lock ups. Furthermore when I hard-boot and it comes back up it sometimes doesn't come up at all. I've had to hard boot up to 3 times to get any access. I've
dialed back to restores from a month ago which seems to save it for awhile. ...But then it downloads all the updates it had picked up during that time. I BELIEVE the entire set of events began around 3 wks ago when I allowed it to download an upgrade to the
GeForce 315 NVIDIA card. I don't think the problem is hardware, I believe it's incompatibility between the new card drivers and W7. As others have suggested, my same software and apps on my Toshiba laptop (6 months old) with an i3 & same OS run
just fine. I believe that has an NVIDIA but I know I've never updated it.

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